Here’s day 3 of me posting regularly – Hurray! BTW, you are free to show some support in a way of submitting good stuff, liking our fan page on Facebook or sharing it with your friends and students :D So, what do we have here today? It’s a vintage perspective illusion of two men waiting for their train to come. Because of the perspective, we see the left man being much taller than the guy standing right next to him. Still, they are both the same size. Proof is simple: print the card, cut out the background, and you will see that both guys are same in height!

really,
you can declare it isnt an illusion..
The person on the right is a midget and the other is 2 times as tall..
Its perspective.

Sam

No, I am certain that it is an illusion. It definatly is perspective though.

Sam

And, of course, the tilt?
Hang on isn’t that perspective?

Jarmo

This kind of perspective illusions are really the lamest of all possible illusions.

Just saying.

A real nice site though, and a good job posting new ones all the time. Some of those are pretty awesome.

Sam

What do you mean by: “Pretty Awsome” They are all cool or in that case “All Awsome”

Steve

Have to disagree with those who say these kinds of illusions are lame. In some ways they are the best, because it is so difficult to get your brain to accept the truth.

Look at this picture and tell yourself over and over that the images of the two men are the same height. Your brain keeps fighting back.

It should start to make you wonder about how much we sense is incorrect because of how the brain interprets all the signals it takes in. Of course, if the brain didn’t take all those shortcuts (like applying perspective in this picture) we’d all go insane from trying to make sense out of the enormous volumes of data that we take in.

Care Bear

I thought the oncoming trains approach from the passengers’ left?

Allan A

Not if you are in Australia or England

Sam

Really?

Kairho

>I thought the oncoming trains approach from the passengers’ left?

Not always. Depends on the country, the number of tracks, suitability of platforms, what side of the bed the dispatcher awoke on, etc.

The question is how that big guy in the back is going to get a comfortable seat.

mitzidoo

I’m not sure that trains gonna stop or not!

eric

yeah sure its an interesting illusion… hard to get your brain to accept and all but its still overdone
it would be nice to see new types of illusions… as hard as that may be

AmetuerAspirant

I finally figured out how to break these illusions! You tilt your head and focus your sight so you’re only looking at the people and not the background and then look quickly between the two, you see them as the same size because your brain doesn’t have the time to apply the surroundings as perspective, and tilting your head because one’s lower than the other and it helps make them seem at equal hight.

David

The really neat thing about this illusion is the train looks way too small for the people on the platform.

Sonu

Simply amazing!! The tricks aur mind plays on us….no wonder we are all dysfunctional in one way or the other!!!

Dave

Nice one.

Sam

Woah!
Has anyone seen those blue spiaral thingys on the side?!

Ann

Get out a ruler and measure them; Same height. Cool.

WyldIndigo

I just took a ruler and they are the same height it’s height of the roof of the station that makes them look different in size. I like this site and how it visually challenges me/

Stan

How will either of them fit it that itzy bitzy train?

David

The great artist Michaelangelo used perspective in designing the Campidoglio of Rome, the small area on top of the hill at the northern end of the Roman Forum, to look larger than it actually is.
Now with regards to this illusion, the DRAWINGS of the man are the same size. But since the man on the LEFT is farther away from the observer than the man on the RIGHT (ie. he’s farther down the platform), he SHOULD appear SMALLER than the man on the right. Logic dictates therefore that the man on the left (farther down the platform) is LARGER than the man on the right, thus allowing them both to APPEAR the same size!!!

joan

whatever the reason may be, I think this is a pretty clever piece of art work1

Actually, the perspective in the drawing is all wrong. The man on the right is only about halfway up the windows and nowhere near the awning, while the one on the left is taller than the windows and almost up to the awning.

While this magnifies the apparent size difference, it cheats rather horribly by using the comparison to the windows and the awning to amplify, when in fact the windows should be the same height and the awning as well…

Tom

I just like it

MosBen

The thing that I think is annoying people, or at least me, is that the question “Which of these guys is bigger” is misleading. The real question is “Which drawing of a man is bigger?” The drawings are the same size, but our minds want us to believe the one in the background is bigger because of perspective. It’s the relationship between the drawing’s that’s hard to reconcile.

But the men represented by the drawing would have to be wildly different heights in order for them to appear as they do here. The guy in the background “really is” bigger than the guy in the foreground, by quite a lot, really.

John

then according to the very same ‘perspective’, those two men could not get into the train, cuz the train is so small!